Doom – Page 127 – Wonderbox Metal

Mammoth Storm – Fornjot (Review)

Mammoth Storm are from Sweden. This is their début album and they play Doom.

Thick, heavy guitars, groove the size of tsunamis and colossal riffs? It can only be Mammoth Storm’s first album. This is heavy, ponderous Doom with a juicy Stoner streak running deep through it.

Charismatic vocals extend out over the songs, animated just above a drawl to provide focus and character to the gargantuan riffs and huge beats.

The guitars are a definite selling point of this music, as the heavy rhythms are meaty as Hell, while the more fragile leads almost have a Post-Metal transcendental quality to them. These are anchored in place by the more earthy guitars so that they remain firmly a part of the music.

The combination of the droning, repetitive nature of the rhythms and the exploratory, unbounded leads make for songs that form a soundscape of textures, writ large in Doom. The vocals cement the idea of a journey through this soundscape, guided by the album art and propelled endlessly forward by the understated-yet-essential drums.

Atmospheric layers are built with ease, immersing the listener in the moods and feelings that the band wish to evoke. It’s extremely effective; it’s easy to slip into these songs and lose yourself in the band’s emotive performance.

This is a substantial début in more ways than one, with the band creating a conceptual storyline to accompany the weighty music. At 55 minutes in length there is a lot of content here to enjoy.

I think this album is pretty much a must-get for any fan of Doom Metal. Check it out.

Terra Deep – Part of This World, Part of Another (Review)

This is the third album from US Progressive Black Metal one-man group Terra Deep.

The music on this release is a complicated and sophisticated Progressive Metal feast that’s born out of the corrupted undergrowth of Black Metal’s fertile roots. Progressive and Post-Black Metal elements take control of proceedings quite early on, reinforced by a dark core of frozen steel.

Deep, unsettling growls, evil shrieks and powerful cleans all add a multitude of texture and feeling to music that successfully combines the cold malignance of Black Metal with the expansive, exploratory nature of Progressive music. This is further enhanced by elements of Doom/Depressive Black Metal that add a forlorn, lonesome sheen to some of the tracks. It all adds up to a multifaceted release full of quality music and songs that engage.

Richly textured tracks seem to bleed shades of pain and grim tidings, while still fostering a highly emotive side that connects with the listener in a visceral way. The songs are advanced exemplars of what can be done with a Black Metal base and a will to explore.

The production is solid and allows the music to hit the right balance between heaviness and nuance. It’s a good sound that satisfies and does justice to the differing parts and influences that make up Part of This World, Part of Another.

These five songs are impressively-realised affairs that speak of the experience and talent of the brains behind the outfit. He obviously has a coherent and well-rounded vision for Terra Deep and has the ability and skill to achieve it.

If you combine Opeth, Enslaved, Forgotten Tomb and Ihsahn then you’ll have a good idea of Terra Deep’s style.

There really is a lot here to offer the discerning Extreme Metal fan and I can’t really recommend this highly enough.

Disenchanter – Strange Creations (Review)

This is the début album from US Doom Metal band Disenchanter.

Having enjoyed their previous EP On Through Portals, this album is a welcome chance to catch up with the band and see how they have taken advantage of having a full-length release.

Well, here we have 55 minutes of quality music; on this release the production is heavier and more professional, the playing crisper and tighter without losing their easy-feeling style, and the songwriting skills have been honed to a fine, sharp point.

Disenchanter play Doom Metal with a good Stoner component, which means that the songs almost roll out of the speakers with an easy confidence and a self-assured air.

The singer has a rich, powerful voice that seems to have a natural presence all of its own, irrespective of the warm, heavy riffs that frequently accompany it. Her voice is strong and compelling.

My favourite tracks are the longer ones, which take their time to build and explore their musical horizons more than their shorter, more upbeat brethren.

Female-fronted Doom Metal is something I’ve been enjoying more and more recently and Disenchanter are a really good example of why.

Recommended.

Ad Nauseum – Ad Nauseum (Review)

Ad Nauseum are from the US and this is their latest EP. They play Sludge Metal.

This is harsh, noise-infected, Hardcore-infused Sludge that’s ugly, uncompromising and brutal.

The shouted vocals are aggressively nasty and purposely blunt and ugly. They barely sound human and make all manner of beastly noises, spreading poison and hatred to all who would listen.

This is barbed and raw, full of spite, bile and a visceral sense of derangement. The songs crawl and bludgeon their way through the playing time and listening to Ad Nauseum is like spending 20 minutes confronting bitter pain.

The noise influence is worked well into the tracks and feels like a part of the music rather then being added in at the last moment. This works with the caustic guitars to create a disturbing atmosphere of decayed rot.

Faster parts are included to really rub the sandpaper on the salt-covered wound. Like a festering, open sore that’s exposed over and over to infected materials, these sections ram home the futility of ever trying to get clean and healthy again. Better to embrace the dirt and live in the ground with the worms and discarded flesh.

A recommended listen for all fans of filth and misery.

Livid – Sint (Review)

Livid are a Doom Metal band from the US. This is their début release.

Featuring two tracks and a running time of 23 minutes, this is a murky, dirty introduction to a new band that shows a lot of promise for the future.

Monk-like clean vocals, huge, Sludge-drenched riffs, warm, earthy drums and a nasty, filthy bass sound mean that Livid easily have what it takes to make a mark.

The music is divided into two parts. On the first, we’re introduced to Livid’s hypnotic, trance-like qualities that they inject into their music, borne out of the repetitive dirge of the low and lazy riffing style and wandering drums.

The vocals sail above the other instruments, a sharp contrast to the rough, Sludgy music. It’s almost as if they’re completely separate from it; untouched by the filth, decay and disease of the underworld. They’re clean in every sense of the word, like angels flying above daemonic undercurrents. It’s a beguiling juxtaposition that shouldn’t work, but it really, really does, adding to the hypnotic nature of the tracks.

As the music crawls to a close after 14 minutes, it’s time to hand things over to the second part. How does this differ from the first? Well, at just under 9 minutes it’s a bit shorter, but it also differs slightly in pace and mood, as this track is more mid-paced and lively, although this is all relative, of course, as it’s still Doom Metal.

The vocals are similar in style to the first track, albeit not quite as detached and separate. They do their job amiably, however, and the song as a whole still retains a hypnotic groove.

Livid have created something quite enjoyable here. Give them a listen.

Arrant Saudade – The Peace of Solitude (Review)

Arrant Saudade are a Funeral Doom band from the UK. This is their début album.

Featuring members of Aphonic Threnody and Abysmal Growls of Despair, you know there’s already a wealth of Doom experience and knowledge behind this release before you even hit play.

And when you do hit play, it starts off gently with piano, and then slowly awakens a the sleeping spirit of despair.

Slow, drawn-out and dripping with lost hope, these 5 songs take 44 minutes out of your life only to replace them with a very real and visceral sense of woe and misery.

Monstrous vocals are deep and unrelenting, growling their way through the solitude of the music like brutal and unwelcome guests.

So far, so Funeral Doom. But then Arrant Saudade do the unexpected and introduce clean vocals, and suddenly everything changes. Sometimes ethereal and sometimes sombre, these choir-like vocals are expertly performed and perfectly judged. When the angelic cleans soar above the beautiful music and seem to join with the resplendent melodies to create something greater than the sum of its Funeral Doom parts…it makes quite an impact I can tell you. Post-Funeral Doom? Sure, why not.

At any rate, the heavenly cleans and the dreamy, melancholic music seem to wash over you like liquid sound and it really is an uplifting and transcendent experience in many ways.

Okay, so not everything is perfect about this album – there are few which can lay claim to this grandiose title – but it’s hugely accomplished and, importantly, does something a bit different with the style. The core of the sub-genre is there with all of the hallmark traits, but The Peace of Solitude is far more emotive and atmospheric than most of its peers, gleaming with dazzling brightness and lustrous with magnificent despondency.

In some ways the growls are the weakest parts of these songs – it’s not that they’re badly done, (they’re not), it’s just that the rest of the music is so very well done that they have some catching up to do.

A relatively minor quibble though, in what is a very impressive slab of uplifting misery.

Highly recommended.

Cult of Occult – Five Degrees of Insanity (Review)

Cult of Occult are a Doom/Sludge band from France. This is their latest album.

This is a band that the word CRUSHING was designed to describe, (yes, in capitals no less). There are five songs here; 65 minutes of misanthropic content.

How to describe Cult of Occult’s nihilistic, hate-fuelled music? They essentially take all of the pissed off, angry highlights of Sludge Metal, (Eyehategod, Charger), and draw them out to epic Doom lengths, resulting in colossal slabs of misery-drenched heaviness that are so caustic and scathing that the songs seem to have a painfully physically presence.

It’s not all ugly belligerence though, as the band skilfully navigate these seas of filth in ways that seem to harness the darkness into tsunamis of torment that crash and build onto and into each other, creating thick, distressing atmospheres.

These songs are deceptively simple though, and upon closer inspection you see that there’s more going on within the oceans of distortion and heaviness than you might think on first glance. The tides of riffs and groove-laden guitars hide a songwriting-skill that belies their nasty, noxious nature.

The singer’s impressive snarl is just shades of anger and repressed rage given form and feeling. Coupled with the Doom/Sludge of the music it seems it’s finally getting the outlet it needs to spew forth its venomous diatribes.

The dirge-like, repetitive nature of the relentlessly crushing music is hypnotic in its delivery and Five Degrees of Insanity is one of those releases that can do no wrong for me.

This is addictive like the worst of drugs. You don’t just listen to this, you feel it.

Dead to a Dying World – Litany (Review)

Dead to a Dying World are a Blackened Doom band from the US and this is their second album.

Featuring a wealth of instruments and influences, this is an epic album that lasts 73 minutes and takes the listener on a tour of all of the dark places.

The bedrock of the band’s sound is grim, murky Black Metal; this immediately differentiates them from some other Blackened Doom bands as usually the style is predominantly Doom with added Blackness; here it’s a good mix of two, probably leaning towards the Black Metal side of the equation a little more overall. There’s plenty of serrated Blackened parts to keep the blood pumping.

Elements of Crust, Post-Metal and pure Doom work their magic in among the blood-fed trees of the Black Metal forest in which the music grows. Litany is powerful, wonderful, ambitious and terrifying in equal measure. Taking aspects of bands like Hope Drone, Neurosis, Wolves in the Throne Room, Myrkur, Usnea, Nux Vomica, Bergthron, Lycus and a whole host of others, this is an impressive body of music that brings something different to the table with each track, all within the established framework of the band.

Sharp Blackened screams are juxtaposed with softer cleans, both male and female. Dark growls populate the undergrowth and harsh, rolling shouting stabs in like spikes. Guest vocals appear throughout the album, making the entire performance varied and interesting for the listener.

The overall feeling is one of a refined, sombre misery. Viola and other instruments give the music an additional air of sophistication and Dead to a Dying World are nothing if not accomplished at the spells they weave; the band are adept at creating thick atmospheres and dark moods.

The recording has a sickly, unnatural warmth to it, like something alive that shouldn’t be. It’s soft when it needs to be and roiling, churning and destructive at other times.

This is a long, involving and emotive listen that builds, crests and waves through the six tracks like a dark tsunami, crushing and destroying yet followed by calm and retrospection, reflecting on all that has been lost.

A very special album.

Maïeutiste – Maïeutiste (Review)

This is the début album from Maïeutiste, who are a French Black Metal band.

This is a long one – 76 minutes of Black Metal that’s grim, mysterious and not afraid to experiment and stretch the tenets of the genre.

Maïeutiste is infused with a playful experimentalism involving elements of Doom, Jazz and Progressive Rock. Traditional Black Metal is the core of their sound though, so don’t mistake this for a free-form, substance-free exploration of whatever the band feel like; instead we simply get Black Metal that adds to, and spreads out from, the core of the style, like a grand contagion.

The music sweeps like a cloak of darkness and the performance is varied and interesting. One moment you could be listening to misery-drenched Depressive Black Metal, and the next you could be listening to a stirring, epic refrain akin to the best that Viking metal has to offer. This is one example of many and demonstrates the talent and ability of Maïeutiste.

It still sounds coherent though, which is an important factor when considering a band like this. It doesn’t sound all-over-the-place and it’s not too varied as to make you wonder how it all fits together; under the darkened funeral moon of Black Metal, that’s how, as this makes up the bulk of the material here.

It’s a long and involving album, but ultimately a rewarding one. Check out Maïeutiste and see if it hits that spot for you.

Kowloon Walled City – Grievances (Review)

This is the third album from US Sludge Metal band Kowloon Walled City.

As a fan of their previous work, this is one I was looking forward to listening to.

Slowly expanding their Sludge Metal sound over the years to incorporate more elements of Post-Metal/Post-Hardcore, the Kowloon Walled City of 2015 is a lean, hungry beast that produces slow, heavy songs that pulse with an underlying energy.

Like a lot of their album covers, including this new one, their music speaks of an urban minimalism and decay. Haunting melodies and and riffs are covered in a modern veneer that’s showing the age of what lies just underneath. Rather than being a bad thing as one might assume, this allows the band an air of instant authority and gravitas, as if their music is older than it actually is.

The songs explore this broken down landscape with the relentless inevitability of something that knows what it’s going to find so can therefore take its time in getting there.

The vocals have a little less sharpness to them on this release and sound a little smoother, more liquid and malleable in delivery. The singer still has a quirkiness to his delivery though, and if anything this side of his voice is more apparent on Grievances than on previous releases.

Kowloon Walled City have returned with another slab of melancholic, dystopian Doom-Sludge, and I’m all the happier for it.

As the singer shouts out on the title-track – “Celebrate”!